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6 Replies to “fun. vs. Sesame Street”

Reddit’s going crazy about this one: Jay Z’s 99 Problems stole “So if you’re having girl problems, I feel bad for you son, I’ve got 99 problems but a bitch ain’t one” from an Ice T song called … 99 Problems. Not even Wikipedia mentions the connection (at the time I write this, anyway).

Woah, snap.. thanks for the tip. I’m gonna post this one now.
Looks like somebody updated wikipedia already… but I don’t see a credit to Ice-T

The title and chorus are taken from Ice-T’s “99 Problems” from his 1993 album Home Invasion. The song featured Brother Marquis of 2 Live Crew. The original song was more profane and describes a wide range of sexual conquests. Portions of Ice-T’s original lyrics were similarly quoted in a song by fellow rapper Trick Daddy on a track also titled “99 Problems” from his 2001 album Thugs Are Us. Jay-Z begins his third verse directly quoting lines from Bun B’s opening verse off the track “Touched” from the UGK album Ridin’ Dirty.

These remind me of Love Minus Zero/No Limit, Deadbeat Holiday, iViva La Gloria! and Because We Can by Bon Jovi (2013). I don’t think I need to go into Honesty, Here I Am or Looking Out My Back Door, but there is a similarity with all of these. Anyway, if Fun. ripped off Sesame Street, they weren’t the only ones; Adelaide Metro ripped them off too. In Adelaide, when you press the button to get off at your bus stop, on some buses you hear three notes and you can sing along to them: Sunny day. Some other buses have an extra note in between and some just go ding or have a buzzer. Anyway, I actually think it’s meant to be The Wheels on the Bus, and singing Round and round along to it works just as well, it’s just in isolation, it sounds more like the Sesame Street theme song.